# I just hit 14,000 unread emails in my Gmail account inbox **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 1, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870 "2017-06-01T19:38:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/21 "2017-06-02T13:46:55Z")
I accumulated a lot of unread messages before I got my phone. Primarily because I didn’t log in my PC every single day. Now, I check email a couple times a days. Delete any junk. There’s still a backlog of messages. Is there a way to delete from a certain date? I’d love to purge everything in my inbox prior to 2012. Any thing important is in a folder or starred. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/22 "2017-06-02T14:15:55Z")
I don’t have any unread messages. I save some and delete others. Every day. Often more than once a day. NO accumulation. I also check my spam folder a couple of times per day and at least twice a week, I find something important there (like a message about a friend’s baby’s successful surgery, a note from my doctor whose email addy is not in my contacts). **Leaffan** , I’m so sorry you didn’t see my email about the $20,000 and new car that I wanted to give you. I didn’t hear back, so I gave it to my next door neighbor. Serious question: why HAVE email if you don’t read it? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/23 "2017-06-02T16:02:42Z")
Unread? In my _inbox_? None. Of course I have prodigious client-side spamfilters. Even my Trash gets inspected for rescue-worthy correspondence and then emptied several times a day though. Delete? I never delete my legitimate emails. I only delete spam. I have one annoying historical gap from the mid-90s but aside from that I have email folders gBoing back to 1991. POP / SMTP all the way, local storage still less than 5 GB (admittedly, I tend to strip off large attachments and transfer them to permanent storage in an appropriate folder if I want to keep them). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/24 "2017-06-02T18:06:31Z")
What is it with gmail? **Every** spam response I get from Craigslist wants me to reply to a gmail account. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/25 "2017-06-02T19:44:18Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I don’t have any unread messages. I save some and delete others. Every day. Often more than once a day. NO accumulation. I also check my spam folder a couple of times per day and at least twice a week, I find something important there (like a message about a friend’s baby’s successful surgery, a note from my doctor whose email addy is not in my contacts). > > **Leaffan** , I’m so sorry you didn’t see my email about the $20,000 and new car that I wanted to give you. I didn’t hear back, so I gave it to my next door neighbor. > > Serious question: why HAVE email if you don’t read it? I read the important stuff. Sent from my XT1635-02 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/26 "2017-06-04T15:21:55Z")
My Gmail inbox is under control - sort of. Google splits emails into “Important”, “Updates”, “Social” and “Promotions”. It’s pretty good about categorising messages. Every now and again I’ll archive everything that doesn’t need replying to. Archiving feels like deleting emails, but they’re only hidden, and you can still search them. So I’ve either usually got zero or thousands, depending on whether you count emails I’ve decided I don’t need to read and archived or not. Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/27 "2017-06-04T23:07:07Z")
My archives of read & handled email go back to IIRC 1999. My combined inbox has zero unread. I get almost zero spam. I’m aggressive about killing any “helpful” subscription that turns into spam. If after 2 issues I’m not glad to see their weekly whatever, I unsubscribe. What comes in gets read in a matter of hours, then deleted if trash, filed when dealt with if non-trash, or held in the inbox until dealt with. Right now that’s about 15 emails in my inbox = work-in-progress folder for one reason or another. I’m way behind because it’s the weekend and I’ve got a cold so some places are closed and my ambition is zero. I cannot comprehend the idea of vast troves of unread garbage putrefying in one’s inbox. With a few nuggets of gold utterly lost in the dross. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/28 "2017-06-05T01:09:26Z")
If my email had gotten that bad, I would have abandoned the account. Heck, it’s what I got my mom to do when she signed up for too much, and why I help her go through her email and unsubscribe to any mailings that she’s signed up for that she doesn’t want anymore. If you have some large number of unread emails, how do you remember the number so you know how many new ones you have? And how do you keep track of the ones you’ve read but need to act on later? My Gmail is set up where the unread emails are on top, and the rest below. My tablet has a saved search for “label:inbox is:unread” so I can quickly see them on there. All of my email accounts are forwarded there, with a label that makes sure I keep them separate (and Gmail setup where replies will use the right account automatically.) I do not understand leaving things unread. Delete them. Or unsubscribe. Or, if that doesn’t work, set up a filter that automatically deletes them. I’m probably the messiest person on the Dope, but my email is clean. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/29 "2017-06-05T01:39:09Z")
I try to be organised and relatively thorough with my emails. I will unsubscribe if, after six months I realise I’m not paying attention to something. Also I avoid signing up to stuff that’s just going to spam me. So all my emails are either read, marked as read, or all those I don’t read I either delete or file away. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/30 "2017-06-05T14:32:44Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I read the important stuff. Why not delete the unimportant stuff? Or better yet, unsubscribe, or if that doesn’t work, block? Why are you keeping this archive of.emails? Do you regularly go back and comb through your unread emails from years past looking for stuff to read? No, you never do. If you never look at it why are you getting it? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/31 "2017-06-05T14:43:44Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Why not delete the unimportant stuff? Or better yet, unsubscribe, or if that doesn’t work, block? > > Why are you keeping this archive of.emails? Do you regularly go back and comb through your unread emails from years past looking for stuff to read? > > No, you never do. If you never look at it why are you getting it? In 12 years I’ve only consumed 34% of my available storage. What do I care about deleting messages? And yes, I have very often gone back to determine things like dates when events happened. It came in very handy over the last year in court appearances against my ex. ETA: I have unsubscribed to stuff that I didn’t want. Other stuff I read sporadically. Important stuff I always read. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/32 "2017-06-05T14:48:47Z")
My first message from April, 2005: > [@](#): > > First off, welcome. And thanks for opening a Gmail account! We think Gmail is different. So to help you get started, you may want to: > > ``` > Check out the new Gmail Tour in our Getting Started section. It's good for, well, getting started. > Visit our Help Center. Here you can browse frequently asked questions, search for answers and learn about some of Gmail's cool features, like labels, keyboard shortcuts and free POP access. > Import your contacts to Gmail from Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, Hotmail and other programs. Then email your friends with your brand new Gmail address. > > ``` > > As you’re using Gmail, you might also see some ads or related links. We believe that you shouldn’t have to share your inbox with large, blinking, irrelevant ads. Gmail’s small text ads are matched by computers, and designed to be relevant to the messages you’re viewing. Which means for once, you might even find ads to be interesting and useful. > > Users have often told us that the more they use Gmail, the more they discover its added benefits–such as being able to find any message instantly or to manage all your contacts in one place. So go ahead and give it a try. In the meantime, we’ll keep working on making Gmail the best email service around. Thanks for joining us for the ride. We hope you’ll enjoy Google’s approach to email. > > Thanks, > > The Gmail Team > > P.S. You can sign in to your account any time by visiting [http://gmail.google.com](http://gmail.google.com) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870/33 "2017-06-05T16:41:02Z")
My wife has over a 100,000 unread emails in her yahoo inbox. Yes, that’s the number that appears on the notification icon on her iphone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-hit-14-000-unread-emails-in-my-gmail-account-inbox/787870.md?page=1)